


Ruby Rose’s Rolling Romantic Recommendations

by Masterweaver



Category: RWBY
Genre: Comedy, F/F, F/M, In-universe shipping, Let's have a little fun after all that huh?, Ships to be added as adressed, Spoilers: Volume 7 (RWBY)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-01-30
Updated: 2020-01-30
Packaged: 2021-02-27 05:47:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,714
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22482055
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Masterweaver/pseuds/Masterweaver
Summary: Or: In which Ruby gets involved in all the ships despite not having a clue.
Relationships: Blake Belladonna/Yang Xiao Long, Lie Ren/Nora Valkyrie
Comments: 3
Kudos: 49





	1. The Buzz

Ruby Rose took a deep drag from her glass of milk, lowering her glass with a satisfied sigh. It had been an arduous few months in Atlas, and then everything had gone to hell in a handbasket six nights ago, but things seemed to be…

Not relaxed, exactly. Calming down, sure, things were at a point where she could sit down and think, but that wasn’t the same as relaxed. Still, it was better than “Oh no, Grimm! Oh no, rogue Knights! Oh no, upset citizens! OH SHIT, TYRIAN!” every fifteen minutes. She tried to keep up a smile for everyone, she really did, but sometimes Ruby just needed some Ruby time, with herself and a glass of milk and a nice weapons magazine. She’d had a full two minutes and thirty three seconds to herself so far.

And then her sister entered the room.

Ordinarily, Ruby would pipe up with a ‘Hey sis!’ but, well, as much as she loved and adored Yang, she really, really needed some time to herself. So she pretended not to notice the blonde crossing the room, picking through her belongings in a vague trance; instead, she just rose the magazine higher, hoping that Yang would just turn around and get back to whatever it was she was getting stuff for. Thankfully, Yang seemed too absorbed in her search to notice her younger sister, at least for the moment. Which was actually rather odd, come to think of it–

–no, no, this was Ruby time. Milk and a magazine. Yang was a mature adult… well, an adult. And if there was an issue, she’d speak up, right? Maybe? Well, whatever it was, it could wait until Ruby finished reading this fascinating article on the experimental usage of non-Dust based ammunition, some of which she might be able to tweak to fit Crescent Rose. With things going the way they were–

“…what am I doing?” Yang muttered, just loud enough for her to hear. “Is this… is this even the right thing?”

Gods.

Friggin’.

Dang it.

Ruby, very reluctantly, put her magazine down and placed the glass of milk on the nearby nightstand. “Hey sis, what’s up?”

“Huh?” Yang blinked as she looked up, her eyes falling on Ruby with realization. “Oh, uh, hey. Didn’t see you there. You want me to leave?”

“Yes and take whatever crazy drama you’ve got brewing with you because this is the first time in a week I’ve had to myself and I’m going to darn well enjoy it,” Ruby did not say, because she was not a complete and total jerkwad.

“Nah, it’s cool,” she said instead. “Come on, Yang, if something’s wrong you know I’d love to help you out.”

“I…” Yang ran her fingers through her hair. “I don’t know, Ruby, it’s kind of stupid.”

“What kind of stupid?” Ruby replied, straightfaced. “I know you’ve had many different strains.”

Yang chuckled with half a grin. “Hey now, half those strains I caught from you.”

“I’d say only a quarter at the most,” Ruby replied loftily.

The blonde shook her head, walking over to sit next to her. “Yeah, well… I don’t think you’ve ever had this strain of stupid before.”

“I don’t know, what are the symptoms?”

“Oh, you know, increased heartrate, general nervousness, constant self-doubt, but only around one particular person–”

“Is this about your ridiculously obvious love for Blake?”

Yang rolled her eyes. “It’s not ridiculously obvious… is it?” she added, curious.

Ruby crossed her arms. “Name one person who has met both of you and hasn’t figured it out.”

“Marrow Amin,” Yang replied promptly.

“Nnnno, pretty sure he noticed on our first mission together. You know, at the mine.”

“Well yeah, but–uh… okay, fair enough. How about Penny?”

“She knows.”

“She does? But she’s–she’s kind of innocent when it comes to that,” Yang protested.

“Trust me,” Ruby assured her, “she knows.”

“…how can you be–?”

“She’s already got the legal documents for your wedding pulled up and stored in her databanks,” Ruby deadpanned. “Said working through the paperwork would be her gift to you once you decided to tied the knot.”

“Ah… huh. Okay.” Yang nodded, eyes distant. “Alright… okay. Okay, so… uh… Okay, I’ve got it! Adrien doesn’t know!”

“Adrien.”

“Yep!”

“Jaune’s two-year-old nephew.”

“Way too young to figure it out!”

“The kid has two moms,” Ruby pointed out flatly.

Yang held up a finger, paused, and lowered it. “Am I really that obvious?”

Ruby nodded somberly. “If it makes you feel better, Blake’s just as obvious about how she feels about you.”

“Wh–psshhhh, no,” Yang laughed and waved it off. “Blake’s chill. She’s so smooth. You know. She… I mean, she just plays it all cool. If you didn’t know what to look for–”

Ruby kept her mouth shut as her sister continued to ramble through her half-hearted attempt to convince reality that Blake was a ludicrously awesome manifestation of pure unadulterated swag. Somewhere, in the back of her mind, she couldn’t help but wonder when Yang had transformed into a cartoon romcom character; the blushing nervous stream of compliments and the vague but constant subtext that maybe she wasn’t good enough for her and by the gods this was way off base. Sure, it was fun to watch her sister stumble over whatever words she was trying to figure out this time, but at the same time Ruby had no idea what Yang was even trying to say anymore.

“Okay, okay,” she held up a hand to cut off the stream of praise. “Let’s just take it as read that you love Blake, she loves you, and there’s a lot that could be said about that. What is it that you’re worried about right now?”

“Uh… well.” Yang’s face fell. “I just… look, we… with what’s going on in Atlas and Mantle right now, I… should we even try to have a…. well, anything? Together, I mean? There’s a lot of… of stress, and worry, and…”

She trailed off for a moment, looking away.

Ruby couldn’t help but sigh. Yeah… with things as wrecked as they were, that… that was a legitimate concern. But at the same time…

“…Mom and Dad got together, even when Mom still went off on missions.”

Yang scoffed. “And look how that turned out.”

“Uh, five or so years of a happy marriage and two incredible daughters who brought light back into Dad’s life after we lost Mom? And who are now fighting to save the world? I mean there was a rough spot or two,” Ruby admitted, “but… there’s a rough spot or two in everyone’s life, Yang. And Blake… she’s here now.”

“Ruby, it’s not that simple–”

“No,” Ruby agreed, “It’s not. But it’s a start.” She nudged her sister with a playful grin. “So long as you two don’t go getting distracted making eyes at each other in the middle of a mission, I say go for it.”

“…You sure?”

“Yep. I mean you’ve been dating since Beacon.”

“Wha–no! What? We weren’t dating at Beacon!”

Ruby gave her a flat look.

“We weren’t!” Yang insisted. “We were just, you know, hanging out like partners, talking about stuff, I… might have tried to impress her sure, and I just wanted to…”

She trailed off, eyes widening in realization.

“Oh. My. God. We were dating, weren’t we.”

“Yep.”

“And I only just now realized this.”

“Yep.”

“I. Am such. An idiot.”

“Yep.”

“I gotta–” Yang stood, pointing a finger vaguely. “I gotta go–uh–talk, Blake, no, wait, get the thing, then, uh, food? Food talk. Yeah.”

“You get that food talk thing, sis,” Ruby said with an encouraging grin.

“I will–yes.” The blonde lunged at her belongings, dug through until she found what she was looking for, and rushed out the door.

Ruby shook her head, picking up her glass of milk and flipping her magazine back open. “Well, that was… a thing. I hope I don’t have to deal with the fallout…”


	2. Boop It

“Heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeey Ruby.”

Ruby rolled her eyes with a small smile. “Hey Nora. You holding up okay? I mean, after….”

She trailed off, her smile fading.

“…Yeah.” Nora sighed. “Well, no. But I’ve been here before. I know I’ll come out of it. And I’m… willing to help you out too, if you want it. I know you–”

“I’m fine,” Ruby said, a little too quickly.

Nora quirked an eyebrow.

“…I’m… okay,” Ruby tried again. “I don’t… I’ve got my friends.”

“Only helps if you’re willing to let them help,” Nora pointed out sadly.

“It’s like you’ve said, I’ve been here before–”

“Have you? Really?”

Ruby fell silent, eyes falling away.

Nora put a hand on her shoulder. “Look, I can’t say I know what you’re going through, but–I’m here for you. Everyone is. You know that, right?”

“I know, I know, I just…” She sighed. “I’m still… processing it. You know? I’ll talk about it when I figure out what exactly… what it all means.”

“Alright, but you shouldn’t keep everyone waiting too long.”

“I’ll… try not to.” Ruby cleared her throat. “So! Yang was being weird yesterday. She came into our room all ‘Should I even try to date Blake with everything going on’ and I was like ‘Yeah, weren’t you dating already?’”

“Wait.” Nora tilted her head. “Weren’t they dating? I thought they were dating back at Beacon, and… they worked out things in Argus.”

“Okay, get this: Yang didn’t realize they were dating.”

“What.”

“I know, right?” Ruby giggled. “She didn’t realize that hanging out with Blake and talking about each other’s interests was dating… up until yesterday.”

Nora held up a finger, paused for a moment, and considered. “You know, that’s not what I would consider dating either, but now that you put it that way, I’m not sure why I don’t think it’s dating.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean Ren and I did that all the time before we hooked up. Back when we were just friends.”

Ruby leveled a flat look at her.

Nora crossed her arms. “We were _just_ friends, Ruby. Ren wasn’t ready to make that move until after Kuroyuri and I respected that. He’s…” She trailed off, her eyes falling. “He’s not actually very open. About anything.”

Now, it could not be said that Ruby had any real experience with romance, aside from Those Three Weeks which, thankfully, were almost a decade behind her now. But she did have a heart big enough that it could tank multiple tragedies and still feel for others. And Nora, well….

Nora was going through a lot.

“…Is… something going on between you two?”

“Oh, nothing,” Nora assured her with a laugh, bright tone only slightly tinged with sarcasm. “Literally nothing is going on between us right now. I mean the kingdom’s going to hell anyway, why talk about our problems when everyone else’s is so much bigger?”

“Aaaaah.”

“It’s–look, Ruby,” Nora said firmly, “I can–Ren and I, we… I know Ren. This is going to take… take some time. He’s not very open, and direct confrontation will just scare… just come across as hostile to him. It’ll take a bit.”

“Okay,” said Ruby, nodding along.

“Which means I don’t need your help with him,” Nora clarified.

“Of course,” said Ruby, nodding along.

“I appreciate the concern, but I can handle Ren, alright?”

“I got that,” said Ruby, nodding along.

“You do.”

“I do,” Ruby repeated. “You understand Ren and have a handle on him.”

“Right, that’s what I said.”

“Sooooooo who has a handle on you?” Ruby asked politely.

Nora blinked for a moment, before shaking her head. “Ruby, I–what? No, I don’t need to–I don’t need to…” She trailed off for a moment. “…Ruby, I… don’t want to unload on you, not after… you know…” Her eyes grew sympathetic even as she cringed. “…what… Salem said.”

Ruby flinched, but she didn’t back off. “…That… Nora, I–”

“I mean, you just–feel so much for everyone, and that’s wonderful, but this… this was personal for you and you need to process–”

“Please,” Ruby murmured softly. “I… I feel… better when I’m helping.”

Nora looked into her eyes for a moment.

“…You… know that you’re going to have to talk about it eventually, right?”

Ruby glanced away.

“…Alright.” Nora cleared her throat. “Alright, but you will have to talk about your thing with somebody. Before the month is out, alright?”

“Everyone is suffering, I can just–”

“That mindset lets it fester,” Nora said firmly. “Maybe nobody else can take it now, sure, but… the longer you let this sit, the longer it will take to heal.”

Ruby huffed a weak laugh. “What, are you an expert on this?”

“…The people who took us in after Kuroyuri were.” Nora sighed. “I learned a lot from them.”

Silver eyes clenched shut. “…I’ll try, Nora.”

“…Okay.” Nora glanced over her shoulders for a moment. “So, this is me, about to go on a rant about Ren, because _apparently_ that’s what I have to do now. Are you ready for this, Ruby?”

Ruby took a breath, steadied herself, and opened her eyes. “Alright, let’s hear the mess.”

“Well, first of all, I am super pissed Ren just threw himself into training when we hit the academy, like, sure, all about self improvement but come on we were all there too, there should be group activities like going out to see a movie or a dance club–Blake and Yang got that, even if they weren’t ‘officially dating’ or whatever, and they have super important reasons to actually train, I mean I don’t want to make light of what happened but Yang needs to get used to her new arm and Blake’s got to fight upriver because of the whole faunus bigotry thing going on anyway. But you know what, that’s cool, Ren gets hyperfocused, but no, he can’t stop there, he just has to focus entirely on the idea of following commands after the massacre because hey, at least you don’t have to think when you’re doing that! And I’m all like god damn it, Ren, I’m right here if you need somebody to hug, and sure I’m short but that makes me extra cuddly but, nooo. Noooooooo, he goes and…”

Nora sighed. “I don’t know. I mean, I get where he’s coming from, but… at the same time, it hurts that he can’t open up around me. I… maybe I’m not the kind of girl he needs.”

“No, Nora…” Ruby took her hands. “Nora, I don’t think any couple is going to be perfectly in tune all the time. But that’s why you work on it, right? So that when these bumps come up, you can learn what works, how to… work things out. Work work work. There’s a lot of work in love, right?”

“I guess…”

“I’m not sure how to suggest handling this. But I do know you suggested a split when we hit the crossroads. You were able to reach him in Kuroyuri, when he snapped. You managed to communicate the issues with Mantle when he was so focused on the issues with Salem. Maybe this is a bigger challenge then what you’ve been through before, maybe you will need help with this–but you’re going to get through this with him. Together.” She shook her hand. “Because you are patient, you are kind, and you are able to listen.”

Nora gave her an amused look. “Ruby Rose, have you even met me?”

“Okay, you’re a bit wild and spastic,” Ruby admitted, “but that’s only while you’re on your downtime. When it really matters, you know… you know how to handle people.” She smiled gently. “You’ll be able to work things out with Ren. I know it.”

“…thanks, Ruby.” Nora sniffed, before clearing her throat. “Well. That’s… that’s enough melodrama for me, today. I gotta go find something sweet so I can go back to being the crazy pink girl.”

“I think Joanna’s handing out candy to some of the refugee kids. Well,” Ruby hedged, “okay, maybe not candy, but something snacky.”

“That’ll do. I like Joanna.” Nora nodded, stepping back. “See you later, Ruby. Let’s go Grimm hunting this afternoon, maybe?”

“I’ll see what I can do.”


End file.
